Vacation continued....

I decided I would recap my last day at the beach. I woke up at 7 a.m., WAY too early for being on vacation so I went back to sleep until 8:45 a.m. This was possible, because I had NO agenda whatsoever except to check out of the hotel by NOON. As I woke up I opened the curtains to the huge glass window and door that faced the ocean. This allowed me to crawl back into the toasty warm bed that faced that very window and to gaze upon the beautiful ocean for the next hour or so. I did some reading while I had a muffin and drank chocolate milk....I just love chocolate milk, but don't have it very often, because it is so fattening. At around 10:45 I decided it was high time to take a shower and pack things up to leave the room I had grown to like so much.


Upon check-out I remembered there was a restaurant that I used to go to with my grandma that was located down the road a bit. The clerk confirmed that the restaurant I was thinking of was in Depoe Bay and it was called Tidal Raves. This was my grandma's favorite restaurant on the coast. The restaurant sits up on the highway and overlooks a cove of Depoe Bay where you can watch the waves come crashing over rocks into the cove. It is truly beautiful. It had been years since I had been to this restaurant and the first time I have EVER sat down in a nice restaurant and ate a meal by MYSELF!!! It was really kinda awkward, but relaxing. There was nothing to do, but gaze out the window and eat. Sounds good, huh. Oh, I should mention I got the halibut fish and chips, with a bowl of clam chowder, crackers, and bread with butter. Yes, I ate too much!! As I ate my delightful lunch I looked in the corner of the restaurant by the window I saw two elderly ladies having lunch together. One of the women reminded me of my grandma. My grandma passed away in 2007 so this lunch was a way of remembering our time together and missing her.

After lunch I proceeded down the road further into Depoe Bay to look at a beautiful art gallery and pick up some carmel corn for my boys. While I was there I remembered the whale watching trip I took with my friend Lisa many years back. This is something I would like to do again. I think my boys would love it!! As I drove back towards Lincoln City I passed the hotel my friend, Christina, and I rented years ago when Luke was just a baby. We had a great time hiking Drift Creek falls, walking on the beach, and having dinner at Moe's. This trip brought back so many memories for me. As a kid my family took many trips to Lincoln City. My family used to rent a little house that sat on D River. There were a lot of fun times of games, rowing down the river in a canoe, having to hike in the rain and mud to get to the house (can't remember if the car broke down, or if the mud was too deep, but it was funny singing songs and walking in the mud)I tried to find it, but wasn't able to find the correct road. I enjoyed traveling down memory lane though.

I stopped at a few stores on the way out of town then called home to say I was headed home. I had a great and fast drive home. Why does it always seem like such a long drive when you are going to your vacation destination, but the trip back home goes by so QUICK??

One thing I wanted to remember in my hotel room when I walked in the door they had a picture of "Footprints" hanging on the wall. I have always loved this poem. In addition, they had a gorgeous picture of a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean with waves crashing all around it. The waves where so high that you could only see the top of the lighthouse and there was a man standing in the doorway looking at the rising and crashing waves around him. At the bottom of the picture was the scripture
"The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer" Psalm 18:2. These are words I need to remember when life gets crazy. Having the picture to illustrate this scripture so clearly will help me to not forget.

This was such a wonderful trip that I will remember for years to come!!!! Many thanks to my loving husband for sending me away!!!